With His Pistol in His Hand book review PDF

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Paredes, Américo. “With His Pistol in His Hand”: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. University of Texas Press, 1958. ISBN-10: 0292701284.

In his hybrid book, “With His Pistol in His Hand,” which is part history, anthropology, folklore, and ethnomusicology, author Américo Paredes recounts the story about the cultural clashes between the North American and Texas Mexican people along the lower Rio Grande Border in the early 1900s in South Texas. The argument of this book is set on how the Texas Mexican people not only resisted but defended themselves from the cultural domination of the Anglo Texan as a result of the westward expansion of the U.S. and it is manifested in the life and legend of Gregorio Cortez. The text of this book is organized with chapters that have titles that indicate what each chapter will be about, is a nontraditional novel, and has eight long chapter along with a bibliography included. The author proves his argument by using many evidential sources such as unpublished sources, phonograph records, interviews, newspapers, and court documents to support his position. For the purposes of this book review the reader will exam in more detail the evidence of cultural conflict, propaganda literature, and the political campaign which was used in state of Texas in late 1800s and early 1900s to justify the North American conquest. The reader begins to encounter various examples of cultural conflicts and injustices done to the Texas Mexican by the North American. These cultural conflicts have occured due to differences in beliefs, values, and stereotypes. The people of Rio Grande or the border people saw each other as equal, the social structure was family as family was very important, there was no democracy but instead a patriarchal system making the community govern itself, and authority was related to whoever was the eldest. After the westward expansion and conquest by the North American the old ways, beliefs, and values of the Texas Mexican were disturbed by the North American. When westward expansion occurred the North American wanted to make Texas a white dominated area as they believed that the Mexicans were inferior because of their mixed blood, they believed Mexicans were thieves, and there was a lack of trust between them. The reader can observe a lack of trust in the Legend of Gregorio Cortez when an American wants to trade his sore mare for Roman’s horse. Roman is Gregorio’s brother and he finally accepts to trade his horse to the American but he is afraid that the American might go back on his word later to which the American replies with, “I never go back on my word. What do you think I am, a Mexican” (p.38). The reader can view a lack of trust between the American and the Texas Mexican but in the end the American ended up betraying Roman and accusing him falsely of stealing his mare to the sheriff who ended up shooting Roman unjustly. Another example of lack of trust was when sheriff Morris was in search of a horse thief and he encounters Andres Villarreal who states that he had traded his mare for a horse to Gregorio Cortez. Sheriff Morris was in distrust of his word and went in search of Gregorio Cortez to see if this was true, “Perhaps Morris did not trust Villarreal’s word and wanted to check on Cortez for himself”(p.60). In the end Sheriff Morris ends up trying to shoot Gregorio Cortez unjustly but misses and dies instead. The North American does not only have distrust of the Mexican but has used the institution of the Texas Rangers to rid of the Mexicans. The reader finds an example of the Texas Ranger committing violent actions toward the Mexican, “But this picture of 7 Texan Rangers, feeling so defenseless in the face of 2 Mexicans that they must fire at them on sight, because the Mexicans might be mean and shoot at them first, is somewhat disillusioning to those of us who have grown

up w/ the tradition of the lone Ranger getting off the train and telling the station hangers’on, Of course they sent one Ranger” (p.29). The Texas Ranger views the Mexican as mean, as a thief, as inferior, as cowards. But in reality the Texas Ranger was the real coward who would shoot Mexicans when asleep, or in the back, and would justify their violent actions towards them because they deserved it for being inferior and “savages”. An institution that was used to degrade the Texas Mexican was education such as propaganda literature. Propaganda Lit was used by the North American as a way to make other Americans believe that the Texan Mexican was evil, mean, a thief, inferior, a savage, a race you can’t trust in order to justify the injustices and violent behavior towards the Mexican. This type of literature caused many Americans to feel no remorse for what was being done to the Texas Mexican because what was being said in the propaganda literature would make the Americans believe Mexicans were bad people and deserved it. The Anglo Texan has contributed to literature related to the people of the border which states six points of attitudes and beliefs of the Mexican one example of the points discussed is, “The Mexican is cruel by nature. The Texan must in self defense treat the Mexican cruelly, since that is the only treatment the Mexican understands” (p.16). The six points summarized state that the Mexican is cruel, a thief, a coward, inferior because of their mixed blood, and Texas is not equal to the Mexican. These ideologies were spread all around in literature which made the American people also believe it and therefore make them feel no remorse or care for what happens to the Mexicans. Another example of literature that degrades the Mexican is from Professor Web a writer of history textbooks of scholarly works. Professor Web’s work called The Great Plains describes similar points described in the six points the reader mentioned earlier such as, “More damaging still was miscegenation with the Mexican Indian, “whose blood, when compared with that of the Plain Indian, was as ditch water”(p. 17). This point of Professor Web is as the six points mentioned, a belief that the Mexicans blood made them inferior to the North American. Political campaigns were used as well to help persuade the people of the aspect that the Mexicans were a thief and inferior in order to justify their conquest. A way the North Americans used to justify their conquest and their actions toward the Mexicans can be seen in chapter one on the section of Meir, the Alamo, and Goliad. The Meir, the Alamo, and Goliad was an expedition by the Mexican army whom the commander of that expedition was Santa Anna. The commander Santa Anna had various Texans killed in this expedition. Thus, the North American uses the Meir, the Alamo, and Goliad expedition as a justification to be cruel and inhumane towards Mexicans because this expedition had many Texans killed. As the Texas claims, “There is always the implication that it was defensive cruelty, or that the Mexicans were being punished for their inhumanity to Texans at the Alamo, Meir, and Goliad” (p. 18). Another example of the Meir, the Alamo, and Goliad expedition being used as justification is, “The truth seems to be that the old war propaganda concerning the Alamo, Goliad, and Meir later provided a convenient justification for outrages committed on the Border by Texans of certain types, so convenient an excuse that it was artificially prolonged for almost a century” (p.19). But this is so unjust, why should the whole race of Mexicans pay for the war crimes committed by commander Santa Anna towards Texans. It is also said that even some Mexicans would plead for the lives of the Texan prisoners. Américo Paredes made an important contribution to the field of Latin American Literature with his book, “With His Pistol in His Hand.” The book is worth reading as the reader can learn of the

past injustices that were done to the Texas Mexicans by the Northern Americans to understand that the Mexicans were not savages, they were only civilized people who defended themselves from the injustices being done to them. Some of the strengths of this book to the reader were that the chapters had titles this gave the reader a hint of what the chapter was going to be about. The book also included some sketches which I thought was interesting and new. A weakness would be that the chapters were pretty long which made it exhausting to read. The book can be enhanced by shortening the chapters. Other than that, the book was interesting to read as a person who comes from a Mexican family, the book brought awareness to the history of the past that was being done to the Texas Mexican by the North American.

Aimee Mora California State University, Dominguez Hills December 15, 2018...